Tuesday, December 27, 2016

A little bit of something off the beaten path tonight, a set of 45s that I've been looking at all season but didn't touch until tonight. Still not sure exactly what these records were for, or even where I got them, much less how I ended up with two copies of one of them... Anyhow, you may be familiar with the Seeburg corporation, for many years a competitor of both Wurlitzer in the jukebox industry and Muzak in the background music industry. I've shared out their music before, both from a sampler LP given to customers in the sixties and from 10" 16-2/3 RPM records designed to be played on their BGM machines, but never from 45s! So these are a little unique. The arrangements sound very familiar on some of these tracks, but I don't think they're the same performances, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of you comes back and says this is the same music as something else from somewhere else. So if you come up with any connections, please let me know. And if you hear anything off with the sound, at least one of these sides I noticed was pressed off-center, so I had to manually adjust the location of the record on the platter to get it to spin properly. My ears may not have picked up on that if it's audible on the others. My copies are numbered 55, 65 & 85, so I get the feeling there are more of these out there. If you've got anything to contribute, please let me know, I'd love to hear the whole set. This is Seeburg Christmas Music Album (Seeburg 3x 7" 45 RPM 55/55X, 65/65X, 85/85X, Mono, 1957). I'm basing that date of 1957 off of the matrix numbers, HO8H-00XX, where the first H means RCA Victor mastered these in 1957. And before you ask, I don't know what the DS and AS designations mean. Any ideas?

1. The First Noel
2. Sleigh Ride
3. We Three Kings
4. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
5. Hark The Herald Angels Sing
6. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
7. Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
8. Twelve Days Of Christmas
9. O Come All Ye Faithful
10. Winter Wonderland
11. Medley-God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Good King Wenceslaus
12. O Holy Night

11 comments:

Once again, if you're leaving me a comment, thanks! Here's a secret link to the Seeburg LP I mentioned. It's a mono copy, but it sounds good. I bought a stereo copy at one point, but I can't seem to put my fingers on it in the collection. Perhaps I have too many records...

Buster, I don't know if they were meant for radio. Maybe. There's no publishing or arrangement credits. I'm leaning towards something they could put in the jukeboxes at Christmas time. They didn't have to pay royalties on the records. But what do I know? Just a guess.

They could be for jukes, true, but I think it may be for other purposes.

There's no publishing credits because the contents are designed to be rights-free music. That is, you pay a fee up front and you get a catalog of music you can use without further cost.

Now, this could be for various uses - radio, industrial film, etc. The music could be used as a bed under voice-over, for example. Or as background coming in from a break for local TV. Or like Muzak, it may have been used in a retail or business setting to soothe the customers or employees.

Got Vinyl?

Ernie's Christmas record want list. There might be something in that stack of Christmas records you want to throw out that I need. Actually, there's a lot more that I need that I don't know about, so send 'em all to me (especially singles)! (Revised 03 March 2018)